A good mystery with some minor issues

Beaches in Paradise (A Tj Jensen Mystery)

Kathi Daley

Rating: 4 of 5

I’ve read and enjoyed this series from the beginning. With this new book, “Beaches in Paradise”, Kathi Daley has come up with an interesting and fun mystery (actually, two for the price of one, which kept me guessing pretty much until the end.)

While I enjoyed solving the mysteries along with TJ, I felt like her relationship to Gina (one of the victims) was stretched pretty far to justify her involvement in solving the crime. Also, something I have problems with in a mystery, is a sleuth who steps too far into an investigation to the point of removing clues one step ahead of the police arriving, and somehow justifying the hampering of a legal investigation. TJ does this more than once in this story. She’s actually called out on both of these issues but finds a way to deflect her friends and families concerns.

Not so much for me as a reader. However, these are two small issues but ones that I think the author might want to be aware of as she writes further stories in this series.

The story involves a murder and a missing person. TJ and her boyfriend Kyle are interrupted by both as they seek to spend their first weekend together and their personal plans get set aside.

There are a lot of clues and red-herrings. Old friends show up and new friends are made. It is a good story, even with its issues, and one that makes me happy to look forward to the next installment in the series.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.